Transcript Los adjetivos descriptivos - Mansfield University of

Descriptive adjectives
Pluralization, gender, agreement, and meaning
Pluralization
 We add a “s” to adjectives
that end with a non-accented
vowel:
 We add an “es” to adjectives
that end in a consonant or an
accented vowel:
 If an adjective ends with the
letter “z”, then we erase the
“z” and add “ces”:
ambicioso
ambiciosos
interesante
interesantes
egoísta
egoístas
trabajador
trabajadores
marroquí
marroquíes
laboral
laborales
capaz
capaces
falaz
falaces
feliz
felices
Gender
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The majority of the adjectives that end with “a” are feminine.
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The majority of the adjectives that end with “o” are masculine.
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Un hombre idealista, la mujer idealista
Los países capitalistas, las compañías capitalistas
El político demócrata, la organización demócrata
Adjectives ending in “e” or a consonant do not express
gender—they only have two forms “singular” and “plural”.
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Un país muy diverso
Un hombre honesto
Adjectives ending in “ista” o “ta” can be masculine or feminine.
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Una gente diversa
Una persona honesta
Una profesora inteligente, un profesor inteligente, las niñas
inteligentes, los estudiantes inteligentes
Una persona útil, un carro útil, unas herramientas útiles, unos
trucos útiles
A group of adjectives that ends with a consonant (those that
express nationality or end with “dor”), have a special feminine
ending.
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Una estudiante alemana
Dos novelas españolas
Una persona muy trabajadora
Agreement
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Adjectives and nouns agree in grammatical number and
gender.
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An adjective that refers to two or more nouns needs to be
pluralized.
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Rosas rojas
Clavel perfumado
Cielo, paisaje y mar sureños.
Canción y copla nostálgicas.
An adjective that refers to two nouns with different genders
has to take the masculine gender.
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Viento y lluvia huracanados.
Romance y balada antiguos.
Agreement: Special Cases
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The adjective with two forms (the short preceding form and long suceding form).
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There is a group of adjectives that have two forms. We use the short form before a noun and the
long form after the noun.
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The adjective “santo”
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We use “Santo” only when the word procedes a name that begins with “To” o “Do”
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A suceding adjective agrees in singular with the collective noun or in plural with the complement
of a noun.
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Tropel de palabras injusto, impropio. (con el sustantivo colectivo)
Tropel de palabras injustas, impropias. (con el complemento del sustantivo)
A preceding adjective that modifies various nouns.
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The adjective agrees only with the noun that is closest to it in proximity.
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la preceptiva autorización y control médicos
The adjective agrees in number with both nouns only when it refers to two people.
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San Juan
Santo Tomás
Santo Domingo
An adjective that modifies various nouns:
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Un buen hombre / un hombre bueno
Un gran evento / un evento grande
Un mal agüero / un agüero malo
los simpáticos Paco y Toni
saluda a sus futuras esposa y suegra
A adjective that refers to particular types of the same class or entity.
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When an adjective refers to different types of the same class or entity (expressed by a plural
noun), then the must agree in gender and number with the affected entity.
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las razas blanca y negra
Location and descriptive meaning
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Adjectives almost always follow the noun that they describe in Spanish, because
they are restricted to describing its “real” or objectively observable”
characteristics.
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When we express “quantity”, however, we have to make sure the adjective
precedes the noun it describes.
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Un amigo bueno
Una voz rara
Unos carros verdes
Primer viaje
Varios amigos
Poco tiempo
Otra lección
Algún día
Esta camisa / aquél sombrero
Also, if we want to call attention to a noun for “explicative” or “emotional”
reasons, we need to place the adjective before the noun.
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El extravagante negociante
El mejor amigo
La conocida escritora
La blanca nieve (sentido poético)